syria has been suspended from both the arab league and the organization for islamic cooperation. when bashar al assad came into power unopposed back in 2000, there was hope that he would usher in a more open damascus. but he isolated many of his neighbors in the region, including tunisia, egypt, and libya. he does have powerful friends, however, in iran, russia, and china, countries that provide syria with military and financial aid. want to bring in tom foreman in washington. if you look at the map there, you see there's friends, there's enemies, there's plenty on both sides. so what would this accomplish if there was a limited missile strike? would it actually change this game, this regional game, if at all? >> it depends on how those friends react. if you think about syria, it's not actually that big of a player on the world stage. about 22 million people there, about two los angeless. that's another way of looking at it. but its friends are very powerful. let's take a look at those. if you bring in some of the biggest players here, iran, russia, and china, why do they care ab